Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is it still worth it having a jailbroken Apple TV?

A

Anastacio

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have an Apple TV2 which is jailbroken but I haven't really used any of it's jailbroken features since jailbreaking it around a year ago.

I already have a Mac Mini connected with EyeTV and Plex, so I won't use my Apple TV for my movie collection/tv watching, and I'm not interested in RSS feeds on Apple TV when I got that with me on iPhone and iPad.

What else are people using their jailbroken ATV's for?

Because I really want to update to the latest official version as I could use the secondary screen feature, so that I can have 2 screens while working on my MacBook Air.
 
To me no, but "the market" says otherwise with people prepared to pay double the price of an ATV3 for an ATV2. I was personally disappointed upon checking to find I had two ATV3's - I had hoped one was an ATV2 so I could sell it.

BTW the multi-screens with Mavericks and ATV3 is really neat, the TV gets the sound too. I was disappointed to find the mirroring works on 2012 MBP but not my old 2009 Mini.
 
if you have a second tv, you could install it there since the mini would do you no good if you wanted to watch something in the bedroom or something
 
Anastacio said:
I have an Apple TV2 which is jailbroken but I haven't really used any of it's jailbroken features since jailbreaking it around a year ago.

I already have a Mac Mini connected with EyeTV and Plex, so I won't use my Apple TV for my movie collection/tv watching, and I'm not interested in RSS feeds on Apple TV when I got that with me on iPhone and iPad.

What else are people using their jailbroken ATV's for?

Because I really want to update to the latest official version as I could use the secondary screen feature, so that I can have 2 screens while working on my MacBook Air.
Click to expand...

I would like to change my Apple TV 3 to get a Apple TV 2 if I could.
 
Anastacio said:
But what I'm interested in is if there's other uses for a jailbroken ATV than movie/tv tweaks?
Click to expand...

No. While there are other features, we can't kid ourselves and deny the main reason people jailbreak the ATV is to stream illegally downloaded content. Straight up. That's the elephant in the room followed by the fact that people have ripped their BD/DVD collections for streaming or wish to stream services such as podcasts or webcasts outside of the iTunes ecosystem.

Btw, there is a working jailbreak for the ATV3 now.
 
Last edited:
If you are looking for something other than movies or tv. . . then no. (Movies and TV is kinda the whole point of the Apple TV. . .)

Frankly it is getting less and less worthwhile to jailbreak even for movies and TV, as certain services become unusable. I never used Icefilms, but last I heard it was no longer working. (per this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...light=icefilms ).
Also the Amazon Instant Streaming plugin for XBMC stopped working earlier this year. People came up with a workaround so that XBMC would instead pop open a web browser, but that workaround only works on macs/pc's, not Apple TVs. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=108124&page=94 . Of course, nowadays you can just stream Amazon Instant Streaming to your iOS device and then airplay to your Apple TV, so this isn't too big a loss, but it's still one less reason to jailbreak.

The only plugins I've been using consistently have been Bluecop's Hulu plugin (mentioned earlier) and the "Free Cable" plugin. The latter just gives you access to those shows where the network posts a streaming version of their show on the network website. So, if CBS posts the most recent episode of "How I met your mother" on CBS.com to be viewed in browsers, that means the "Free Cable" plugin can stream that same episode directly via XBMC on your Apple TV.

With those two plugins, the jailbreak basically serves as a "backup" option for streaming shows that my EyeTV/Antenna system misses. If it's on Hulu or a network website, it's available to stream on my Apple TV. If you are interested in sports, there are some ESPN3 plugins that I'm told work pretty well, but I don't watch sports so I've never bothered trying those plugins.

I use the jailbroken features above maybe once every 2 or three weeks if for some reason we miss an episode. My wife used to use it for the cable channel shows like project runway, but for some reason that wouldn't stream reliably via Free Cable, so she just ends up watching it on her iPad. She could airplay it, but she doesn't bother.

----------
Ghostbusters said:
Btw, there is a working jailbreak for the ATV3 now.
Click to expand...

Uh what now?

Are you talking about the Plexconnect/Trailers app hack, or do you mean an actual jailbreak?
 
Ghostbusters said:
No. While there are other features, we can't kid ourselves and deny the main reason people jailbreak the ATV is to stream illegally downloaded content. Straight up. That's the elephant in the room followed by the fact that people have ripped their BD/DVD collections for streaming or wish to stream services such as podcasts or webcasts outside of the iTunes ecosystem.
Click to expand...

In a way better than Beamer?
 
Anastacio said:
What if I am already content with Plex on my Mac Mini and have no need for 1Channel - does a jailbroken ATV2 have any use to me then?
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like your Mac Mini has taken over your media needs. Other than streaming content, I'm not sure what you're expecting the Apple TV to do for you.
 
The only reason I would look at an older ATV is to get an ATV1 which had component video output to use on an old plasma of mine.
 
institute said:
There is not a jailbreak for ATV3.
Click to expand...

h0pb.jpg


SLAY!
 
This thread gives me hope. I still have my ATV2 and haven't jailbroken it. I can still sell it for a decent nut. eBay, I assume. Anywhere else? I can't see craigslist having a huge market for them.
 
mlmwalt said:
This thread gives me hope. I still have my ATV2 and haven't jailbroken it. I can still sell it for a decent nut. eBay, I assume. Anywhere else? I can't see craigslist having a huge market for them.
Click to expand...

I need to do the same thing. I have zero interest in jailbreaking.
 
I have an Apple TV 2 that was jailbroken but once PlexConnect for Apple TV came out, I updated it to 6.0.1 and its been great. I don't miss the jailbreak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back